Material disposal assembly

ABSTRACT

A material disposal assembly to store compacted material in a high density, easily transportable system. The assembly forms a totally enclosed chamber with provision for insertion of the material. Compression of the refuse or material within the unit is aided by the declination and tapering of the enclosing walls in a longitudinal direction. Tapering of the side walls in an upward and outward direction further provides for full utilization of the enclosed chamber thereby providing a high unit density of material within the allowable chamber volume. The assembly further includes provisions for attachment to a moveable vehicle for transportation of the compacted material to a remote site.

United States Patent 1191 Coren 1 Apr.'3, 1973 [54] MATERIAL DISPOSAL ASSEMBLY [76] Inventor: Harry Coren, 1444 McKinley Street, Philadelphia, Pa. 19149 [22] Filed: Aug. 31, 1970 [21] Appl. No.: 68,430

[51] Int. Cl ..B65d 7/44, B65d 87/24 [58] Field of Search ..220l7l, 1.5, l, 83; 214/833; 100/229 A [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,240,048 3/1966 Lapansie .L ..224/42.41

3,250,414 5/1966 Ploch 3,310,106 3/1967 Leseelleur et al.

3,185,486 5/1965 Haley ..214/83 3 X 2,914,205 v11/1959 Truelnski ..2l4/83 3 X 2,648,452 8/1953 Gibson et'al ..214/83.3 X

FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 1,493,633 7/1967 Frunce ..221)/1.5

Primary Examiner-George E. Lowrance Attorney-Paul Maleson [57] ABSTRACT A material disposal assembly to store compacted material in a high density, easily transportable system. The assembly forms a totally enclosed chamber with provision for insertion of the material. Compression of the refuse or material within the unit is aided by the declination and tapering of the enclosing walls in a longitudinal direction. Tapering of the side walls in an upward and outward direction further provides for full utilization of the enclosed chamber thereby providing a high unit density of material within the allowable chamber volume. The assembly further includes provisions for attachment to a moveable vehicle for transportation of the compacted material to a remote site.

3 Claims, 4 Drawing Figures PATENTEUAPR 3 I975 INVENTOR. HARRY COREN %%@m ATTORNEYS.

, 1 MATERIAL DISPOSAL ASSEMBLY BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention This invention pertains to material disposal assemblies which store compacted materialor refuse. In particular it relates to a totally enclosed disposal unit with specific geometric construction to provide a high density refuse or material loading factor per unit volume of the assembly. More particularly this invention relates to a unit having tapered walls in three planes of operation with the sidewalls being not only tapered in a longitudinal direction but also inclined in an upward and outward direction to allow movement of material in a vertical as well as a horizontal direction thereby providing more internal volume used for storage. Further, this invention incorporates attachment struts to easily place and secure the unit to a truck or other moving vehicle for transportation to some other location than the area where the material is being loaded into the assembly by a ram operated cylinder or other compacting apparatus.

2. Prior Art Assemblies to store compacted material are known in the art. In prior art however, construction of storage units was limited to geometrically tapering the side walls in a longitudinal direction. Other prior art included the tapering of ceiling walls in a declined manner also in the longitudinal direction. Tapering of the ceiling plans as well as the sidewalls in this manner did provide a decreasing cross-sectional area in the longitudinal direction to provide more stress applied to the material at the rear of the unit away from the compressing apparatus, thus causing greater compression of material within the unit. However, in most assemblies the material entranceway is located near ground level to accommodate the compression apparatus. Therefore, in prior art, although the material to be stored was compressed in the longitudinal direction there was little, if any, movement of the material in a vertical direction to'utilize the entire volume of the unit. The tapering of the sidewalls in an upward and outward direction allows full use of the interior of the assembly to store the compacted material by providing a low resistance path of material movement in a substantially vertical direction.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A totally enclosed material disposal assembly to store material which is compressed within a chamber formed by the assembly. The structure includes a pair of mutually opposed floor and ceiling plans as well as a pair of forward and rear walls extending in a substantially vertical direction from the floor plane and fixedly secured to the floor and ceiling planes on opposing ends thereof. Side walls which are rigidly fastened to the floor, ceiling, and forward walls are tapered in an upward and outward manner to provide a totally enclosed assembly. Access to the assembly is provided by a door and entranceway formedon the rear wall of the assembly.

An object of this invention is to provide a unit where compacted material may be stored.

A further object is to provide an assembly which will aid in the compression of material by tapering the ceil- .ing and side walls in a longitudinal direction thereby providing for greater stress to be applied to the material entering the unit.

In addition, another object of this invention is to produce a unit which will allow full use of the interior of the assembly to store the material by providing sidewalls tapered in an upward and outward direction to allow the material to be easily moved in a vertical direction within the assembly.

Still further, another object is to provide a wholly contained assembly which may easily be transported to another location by a truck or other moving vehicle for storage or disposal of the contained material."

. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a plan view of the material disposal unit showing the ceiling plane taper in the longitudinal direction;

FIG. 2 is an elevational view of the disposal assembly showing the declination of the ceiling plane in the longitudinal directions;

FIG. 3 is a side elevation view of the disposal assembly; and,

FIG. 4 illustrates a side elevation view of the assembly along the section line 4--4 of FIG. 2 describing the taper of the enclosure walls in the three planes of operation.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2 there is shown a material disposal containeror container assembly 1 to provide a totally enclosed chamber wherein compressed material or refuse 1 1 may be stored for disposal at the initial site or to be moved to some remote area convenient to the operator. The specific geometric construction of assembly 1 allows for a greater amount of compressed material 11 to be input to the chamber than was found in previous constructions utilized for the same purposes. Compression of material 11 within assembly 1 is achieved by a standard ram operated air cylinder or other such means not part of the present invention and not restrictive of the inventive concept involved.

Container assembly 1 comprises ceiling plane 2 and opposing floor plane 13 rigidly fixed to and supported by forward wall 5 as well as opposing side walls 3. Attachment of walls 2, 5 and 13 to each other is accomplished at respective mating surfaces by welding or other means to provide a totally enclosed chamber region within assembly 1 used to store material 11. Container 1, as will be described in the following paragraphs, is further adapted to be placed on a truck or other moveable vehicle to remove the filled container 1 to another site for disposal or other functions such as storing. Rear wall 4 is a conventional door hinged and latched in a conventional manner to permit dumping of container 1. Door 4 swings on hinges 16 which have a hinge pin 14. Latch 15 is releasable in a conventional way to let door open. Structural details of openable door or rear wall 4 are not part of the present invention.

Floor plane 13 and ceiling plane 2 are mutually opposed vertically and extend in a longitudinal direction between rear and forward walls 4 and 5. Both floor 13 and ceiling 2 are planar members with floor 13 disposed in a substantially horizontal plane. Geometrically, floor 13 and ceiling 2 are trapezoidal in form and similar. Floor plane 13 is substantially equal in length to ceiling 2 in the longitudinal direction but having a width, throughout the longitudinal span substantially less than its opposing plane. Ceiling plane 2 extends in the longitudinal direction in a generally inclined manner to horizontal floor plane 13. In this manner opposing ceiling and floor planes 2 and 13, being vertically displaced from each other, have a maximum displacement at rear wall 4 and a minimum displacement at forward wall 5. Ceiling 2 being a plane member, the rate of declination in the longitudinal direction is constant, thereby providing a constantly decreasing crosssectional area in a plane normal to the longitudinal direction between rear and forward walls 4 and 5.

Rear wall 4 and forward wall 5, as shown in FIG. 2, extend between floor 13 and ceiling 2 and are rigidly fastened at opposing end surfaces to the mutually opposing planes. Wall 4 is attached in a manner so as to be substantially orthoganal to horizontal floor plane 13. Forward wall is substantially perpendicular to ceiling plane 2 and is slightly inclined to floor 13 transferring from a basically vertical plane to an inclined plane along inclined section surface 12. The inclination of forward wall with respect to floor 13 provides ease of placement of container 1 onto a truck or other moveable vehicle during a transportation operation.

Side walls 3 are mated to floor and ceiling planes 13 and 2, and to forward and rear walls 5 and 4 along corresponding surfaces as is shown. Side walls 3 are and other aforementioned members form a totally enclosed container assembly 1. Due to the fact that floor plane 13 is geometrically similar to ceiling plane 2 but comprises a smaller width along the longitudinal direction, side walls 3 which extend from floor 13 to ceiling plane 2 are tapered in an upward and outward direction.

In the sectional view of FIG. 4, it is seen that the cross-sectional area of the chamber of assembly 1 decreases in the longitudinal direction from rear wall 4 to forward wall 5. This longitudinally decreasing crosssectional area allows material 11 to be increasingly compressed along the length of assembly 1. The stress applied to material 11 by the ram operated air cylinder or other compressing means is the force applied divided by the cross-sectional area of material 11 encountered. As the cross-sectional area decreases greater stress is appliedto material 11 and therefore more compression of refuse 11 can be obtained near forward wall 5 for the same force applied by the compression means. This has the effect of providing a greater amount of compressed material 11 per unit volume within the chamber of assembly 1.

Tapered side walls 3 inclined in an upward and outward manner provide an increasing cross-sectional area in a vertical direction. This increasing cross-sectional area in the vertical direction provides a low resistance escape path for refuse l 1 to move in a vertical direction and relieve the stresses imposed by the compression means in a longitudinal direction. This tapering provides an offset to the gravity effect and horizontal compressive force which tends to keep material in the bottom of assembly 1. Walls 2, 4, 5 and 13 are constructed of heavy gauge sheet metalor flat structural members such as steel, only important in so far as container 1 acts as a load carrying platform for material 1 1 and as a compressively stressed container due to the action of the ram operated cylinder or other compressive means.

In construction, a base frame comprising a plurality of horizontal struts or ribs 8, and a plurality of vertical struts or ribs 9 provide the structure upon which walls 2, 13, 4 and 5 are mounted. Opposing horizontal ribs 8 are mounted by bolts or weld to both ceiling 2 and floor 13. Ribs 8 are spaced substantially equidistant from each other but having a monotonically decreasing length to accommodate the taper of ceiling 2 and floor plane 13. Opposed struts 8 on ceiling 2 and floor 13 are of the same length in relation to a corresponding member.

Vertical struts 9 extend from and are fixedly attached to floor and ceiling horizontal ribs 8 by bolts, welding or some such means not important to the inventive concept. The vertical length of struts 9 are progressively decreased in the longitudinal direction from rear wall 4 to front wall 5 in order to accommodate the inclination of ceiling 2 with respect to floor 13. As shown in FIG. 4 struts 9 are tapered from a larger base dimension at the interface with floor horizontal ribs 8 to a smaller dimension width at the interface with a correspondingly opposed ceiling horizontal rib 8. In cross-section, vertical struts 9 take the form of a triangle with a linearly decreasing width upon which side walls 3 may be rigidly attached thus giving an outward and upward taper to side walls 3 with respect to horizontal floor plane 13. The plurality of horizontal and vertical struts 8 and 9 thereby form a frame upon which side walls, forward wall 5 as well as floor and ceiling planes 13 and 2 may be rigidly secured to provide assembly 1 with a cross-sectional taper in three planes of operation.

Rear wall 4 has therein an entranceway whereby material 11 may be input to assembly 1. Sliding door 7,

operating in a vertical plane moves to cover or uncover port or opening 6. Door 7 is slideably attached to corresponding and opposing struts 9 and may be manually operated to open or close port 6. In operation, door 7 is slideably moved in a vertical direction to uncover port 6. Door 7 is shown fragmented over port 6 in FIG. 3. Obviously, when rear wall 4 is closed and latched, all walls and floor and ceiling are secured together. Material or refuse 11 is forced into container 1 until it is filled. Door 7 is then closed in order to maintain material 11 within assembly thus forming a totally enclosed chamber during transportation or storing.

A pair of attachment struts 10 extend in a longitudinal direction along the lower surface of floor plane 13 and are inclined at forward wall 5 to substantially follow the contour of forward wall 5 in a vertical direction on the outer surfaces of assembly 1. Struts 10 are rigidly fastened by bolts or weld to floor horizontal ribs 8 as well as directly to forward wall 5. Struts 10 serve the purpose of structurally strengthening the frame of assembly 1 and further provides a mechanism to provide securement of assembly 1 to a truck or other means of conveyance in order that container 1 may be taken to a remote site for storing or disposal.

In operation material or refuse 11 is forced into container 1 through open port 6. In order to achieve maximum density of material 11 within the chamber of assembly l, a ram operated piston cylinder or other such means compacts refuse 11 within the chamber. Since port or opening 6 as depicted in FIG. 3, is situated on a lower surface of rear wall 4 and close to ground level for ease of operation in the compression step, material 11 is forced in abasically horizontal direction between rear wall 4 and forward wall 5. As discussed previously, the cross-sectional taper of assembly 1 in the longitudinal direction materially aids the compaction of material 11 in the region of forward wall 5. Additionally, the fact that the cross-sectional area in the vertical direction increases, as defined by the invention, refuse 11 is generally forced in an ascending direction due to the upward and outward inclination of side walls 3. As morematerial l l is input into container 1, utilization of the entire chamber allows a greater quantity of refuse 11 to be stored than was found in previous assemblies.

What is claimed is:

l. A totally enclosed material disposal assembly to store compressed material within a chamber formed by .said assembly, comprising:

an opposed pair of flat floor and ceiling planes hav-- floor and ceiling planes;

means for providing access of said material into said chamberof said assembly;

a mutually opposed pair of side walls secured to said floor, ceiling, rear and forward walls to form said totally enclosed material disposal assembly; and,

means for tapering said side walls from said floor to said ceiling planes continuously and uniformly in an outward and upward direction, said means for tapering said side walls to include a plurality of strut members extending in a substantially vertical direction and rigidly secured at a lower surface to said floor plane and at an upper surface to said ceiling plane, said side walls being securely fastened to said strut members.

2. The apparatus as recited in claim 1 wherein said lower surfaces of said struts have a width in excess of the widths of said strut upper surfaces to provide an inclined surface attachment plane in an outward and upward direction for said side walls. I

3. The assembly as recited in claim 2 wherein said ceiling plane is inclined to said horizontal floor plane being closest in vertical proximity to said floor plane at corresponding forward surfaces. 

1. A totally enclosed material disposal assembly to store compressed material within a chamber formed by said assembly, comprising: an opposed pair of flat floor and ceiling planes having forward and rear surfaces; an opposed pair of forward and rear walls extending in a vertical direction substantially orthoganal to said floor plane, said forward and rear walls secured to said forward and rear surfaces of said floor and ceiling planes; means for providing access of said material into said chamber of said Assembly; a mutually opposed pair of side walls secured to said floor, ceiling, rear and forward walls to form said totally enclosed material disposal assembly; and, means for tapering said side walls from said floor to said ceiling planes continuously and uniformly in an outward and upward direction, said means for tapering said side walls to include a plurality of strut members extending in a substantially vertical direction and rigidly secured at a lower surface to said floor plane and at an upper surface to said ceiling plane, said side walls being securely fastened to said strut members.
 2. The apparatus as recited in claim 1 wherein said lower surfaces of said struts have a width in excess of the widths of said strut upper surfaces to provide an inclined surface attachment plane in an outward and upward direction for said side walls.
 3. The assembly as recited in claim 2 wherein said ceiling plane is inclined to said horizontal floor plane being closest in vertical proximity to said floor plane at corresponding forward surfaces. 